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Sunday, October 26, 2014

Fall OMLTA Conference 2014

Well, it came and went...quick as lightning. The fall conference put on by the OMLTA each year in a different Ontarian community is just a single day, so it's a great single hit of PD and teaching energy. This year, the conference was in Cambridge, at a beautiful - absolutely stunning, really - historic school called Galt Collegiate Institute.

Somehow, I missed getting my standard issue bag for pamphlets, which turned out to contain a number for door prizes, but I still got to take away a couple of things. The mug was a thank you from the OMLTA for presenting a session. (Thank you, OMLTA organizers for the opportunity & the mug.) The cute canister was a door prize which I won the evening before, at a wine & cheese event at Cambridge city hall. It contained another mug & a spatula, donated by Chef à l'école. (Thank you, chef Suzanne!)

My presentation was about using older materials that you have in new ways, and I promised attendees would walk away with six strategies to use with whatever their favourite older materials were. I hope I delivered on that! I was a bit nervous, sharing that this was my first OMLTA presentation, but I think after a few minutes, I was "warmed up" and feeling a little better about how the session was going. If you weren't able to make it, you can still judge for yourself how well I hit my mark by checking out my presentation here.

I'd originally planned to share more take away items (create ones just for the presentation, as well as to share some I've used myself) but a few things led me away from that decision...

1) OMLTA requests to only send them material that abides by copyright (i.e. that we've created ourselves)
2) knowing all of our students have different experiences & needs
3) knowing that various teachers have access to various older materials, and how frustrating it is to find a great idea that you cannot use because you don't have the "right resources"
4) a belief that we really do have a lot more teaching tools at our disposal than we tend to think!

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and there were some great ideas shared by others. The sessions I attended were about Poetry In Voice, using Google Drive & Apps in French (core & immersion - high school), and about basing your entire French program for the year on exploring various authentic tasks linked to an imaginary trip to a francophone destination. I'm positive that I missed just as many fabulous sessions as I attended. Be sure to check out the OMLTA website in early November to access any handouts, files and other information presenters share there. You have to be a member to access it, but I highly recommend that. It's well worth the very small sum annually!